Almost all aircraft are equipped with exterior lights. In particular, large passenger air planes are provided with a wide variety of exterior lights. The exterior lights are provided for various different purposes, such as for allowing the passengers and/or air crew to view the outside, for passive visibility, for signaling purposes, etc. Examples of such exterior lights are navigation lights, also referred to as position lights, anti-collision lights, landing lights, taxi lights, runway turn-off lights, etc.
LEDs are a potential kind of light source for exterior aircraft lights. They are commonly mounted on a mounting board that is adapted for the arrangement and connection of electronic components. Such mounting board may be a printed circuit board (PCB). There is a number of issues around the use of such printed circuit boards. For example, electric connectors of the PCB and, potentially, other electronic components may be subject to undesired electrostatic discharge (ESD). As another example, excessive heat may be built up at the printed circuit board during operation. The foregoing issues are particularly severe in exterior aircraft lights, as they are required to operate in very hazardous conditions. Depending on their location on the aircraft, they may have to withstand large aerodynamic forces, strong vibrations, large temperature variations and/or hazardous gases, such as exhaust fumes. Addressing these issues has lead to complicated designs for exterior aircraft lights in the past, resulting in complicated and lengthy production procedures.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide an exterior aircraft light that provides for improved implementations of exterior aircraft lights with PCB-mounted LEDs. Further, it would be beneficial to provide an aircraft with such an improved exterior aircraft light.